Auxin treatment of wetland and non-wetland plant species to enhance their phytoremediation efficiency to treat municipal wastewater

Abstract

<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family: " times="" new="" roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:="" mangal;mso-ansi-language:en-gb;mso-fareast-language:en-us;mso-bidi-language:="" hi"="" lang="EN-GB">Auxin treatment of wetland and non-wetland plant species for increasing their phytoremediation efficiency to treat municipal wastewater was studied. The mesocosms were set up with gravels and polyethylene balls as the inert support media. The wetland plant species (<i>Alternanthera philoxeroides,</i> <i>Eichhornia crassipes)</i> and non-wetland species (<i>Chrysopogon zizanioides, Festuca arundinaceae) </i>were treated with six concentrations (0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, 8.0 and 10.0 mg/L) of natural auxins (Indole-3-acetic acid, Indole-3-butyric acid) and a synthetic auxin (1-Naphathaleneacetic acid). The optimum auxin concentration was found to be 2 mg/L of IAA, 1mg/L of IAA and 1mg/L of IBA for <i>Alternanthera philoxeroides</i>, <i>Festuca arundinaceae</i> and <i>Chrysopogon zizanioides,</i> respectively. The removal efficiencies of auxin treated <i>Alternanthera philoxeroides,</i> <i>Festuca arundinaceae</i> and <i>Chrysopogon zizanioides</i> for BOD, Nitrate and Phosphate was 12-15, 30-44 and 29-42 % more than the untreated plants.</span>